Chris Adams is Senior Lead Women's Ministry Specialist with LifeWay Christian Resources in Nashville, Tennessee. Chris began in ministry in her local church and later joined LifeWay where she has been helping churches build successful women's enrichment ministries ever since.

Many of you have met Chris at one of LifeWay's many training events for leaders in women's ministry. These include Women Reaching Women, a regional training event that takes place in venues all over the country, and the National Leadership Forum, LifeWay's annual conference hosted in Nashville each November. Whether you know her already or not, you will learn from and be challenged by Chris' latest insights on ministry as she learns some valuable lessons of her own while teaching the rest of us to do ministry.

WM: Chris, How did you first get involved in ministry to women?

CA: I was serving at Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, Texas with women in the area of missions education and women's ministry. I also coordinated the children's missions organizations. When what we were doing with women just didn't' seem to interest most of our women, we began to pray about what we could do that would. We visited a couple of churches that were trying different ways of reaching women and having success. Then we came back and prayed long and hard for God's direction about what to do at our church to reach and disciple women. I was a volunteer first, then part-time for 10 years and later full-time for the next two years.

WM: What eventually brought you to Nashville and to LifeWay?

CA: Sitting in my office one day, I got a call from what is now called LifeWay to see if my husband and I would pray about coming for an interview for the position of women's ministry specialist. Much to my huge surprise, God very clearly led us to Nashville.

At that time, Journey [women's devotional magazine] was just a few months old. [LifeWay] was in process with their first women's Bible study, A Woman's Heart, God's Dwelling Place by Beth Moore. That's it. No training had taken place.

My role was to help leaders build and grow women's ministries in the church and to find and pursue resources for publication. I began by compiling a leadership book called Women Reaching Women: Beginning and Building a Growing Women's Ministry and then later another called Transformed Lives: Taking Women's Ministry to the Next Level.

WM: You travel and host conferences with WM leaders all over the country. What are you hearing from them about what's happening in ministry right now?

CA: I believe we are in another turning point with ministry to and with women in the church. The young generation of today...

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